CUUPS Facilitator’s Letter

 

(Composed 2001)

 

Five years from now: CUUPS

 

I see us having 15 members who have joined both National CUUPS and our Church. In 2000, we had four people who belonged to both.

 

We will become known as a place to come for handfastings, child quickenings, memorials, and celebrations of life's passages. We may become involved in some religious discrimination battles and child custody disputes.

 

Our Annual Witches Ball will have grown in fame.  We will continue holding one Open Ritual each month and rotate its leadership. These will attract about 100. The Thursday evening Study Group will continue, but it's numbers will stay below 30 because of room size. We will be spinning off other meetings and private rituals into the community.

 

We will offer CUUPS workshops at pagan festivals as well as at SUUSI and SWIM.  Occasionally, we will send books to prison inmates.

 

CUUPS will remain a small part, less than 25%, of the church membership, calendar, and outbound publicity.

 

 

 

Five years from now: The Labyrinth

 

In 2001, we will complete our outdoor labyrinth at the north front corner of our building.  We will include a welcoming sign, explaining the origins of this meditation tool and its use.  At first, our members will be the ones who will walk the labyrinth.  One person will get really excited about it and travel to San Francisco to take the labyrinth certification course.

 

The low maintenance design we will choose will keep the Buildings & Grounds Committee happy. Future building expansions will be out the rear of the church building.

 

We will use the labyrinth for retreats. Our Buddhists, Christians, and Generic UUs will find meaning here.  Other groups will discover this and pay to reserve it.  Our listing on the National Labyrinth Website will bring us visitors from many paths. Inclusion of the labyrinth on our church website will make us all the more interesting to church shoppers.

 

People will find us because of our labyrinth and some of them will stay.

 

--Kip Barkley

 

 

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